Official visit to Uruguay

Recently, CAF President and CEO Enrique Garcia paid an official visit to Uruguay, during which he had important meetings with the country’s top government officials.

Montevideo, August 16, 2011. The President of the Republic, José Mujica, received CAF’s president and CEO, Enrique García, and its director in Uruguay, Gladis Genua, in his office.

On this occasion, Enrique García reiterated CAF’s commitment to offering Uruguay support for the priorities defined by its Government. He also made special mention of the macroeconomic handling of the country as a positive factor in dealing with the world financial crisis.

“To the extent that a demand exists, CAF has the resources to attend to the country’s annual operations to the tune of more than USD 600 million,” assured García.

He also had meetings with the vice-president of the Republic, Danilo Astori, the minister of economy and finance, Fernando Lorenzo, the minister of foreign affairs, Luis Almagro, and the president of the Central Bank, Mario Bergara.

Some thoughts on Latin America and regional integration
During the visit to Montevideo, CAF organized a working breakfast for local authorities from the public and private sectors, personalities from Uruguay’s political, business, banking, and academic circles, and representatives of the diplomatic corps and the media.

At this working breakfast, President and CEO Enrique García shared some key aspects of CAF’s sustainable development and regional integration agenda and also his thoughts on Latin America’s present economic and social situation in the context of the current financial crisis as well as on the opportunities open to the region and its future prospects in the global context.
García stressed the need to maintain a vision of comprehensive development “with sustained growth of good quality that generates productive employment, is inclusive, respects cultural diversity, and is aware of responsibilities towards the environment.”

He pointed out that Latin America had learned the lesson from previous crises and that it had performed well on the macroeconomic level in recent years, but that, even so, there was still much to do with regard to aspects of microeconomy.

In this regard, he called on everyone to save and invest more, increase productivity, and take advantage of the good moment the region is experiencing to work on a necessary transformation of the productive sector.

On the matter of integration, García made special mention of and expressed his pleasure at UNASUR’s decision to “strengthen CAF” in the context of the preventive measures adopted at the Summit of Finance Ministers held in Buenos Aires and said that, in his opinion, integration should not be seen “as a luxury but as a necessity.”

During the meeting, the president of the Central Bank of Uruguay, Mario Bergara, stressed the important role that CAF plays today for the countries of the region. In particular, he said that “CAF is a friendly bank of Uruguay’s” and pointed to CAF’s growth, affirming that “it ceased to be an Andean Corporation to become a bank of Latin America.”